DARLINGTON, S.C. — Christopher Bell held off Cole Custer in overtime to win Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Darlington Raceway.
Sheldon Creed was headed for his first career series win until a caution for AJ Allmendinger’s contact with the wall sent the race to overtime. The field pitted and Creed exited third behind Bell and Custer after a slow stop.
MORE: Darlington results
MORE: Driver points after Darlington
Custer finished second. Creed placed third.
“I don’t know what to do to be any better than that,” Creed told NBC Sports’ Dave Burns. “I felt like I put in one of my best performances today, and, yeah, I just, I love my pit crew and they do a great job for us. I can’t blame that on them.”
Bell, who led 108 of the 150 laps, told NBC Sports’ Kim Coon: “It seemed like our car was really good on the short run. Sheldon was really good on the long run. Unfortunately for him, the race laid out differently, and fortunately for us we got another shot at it.”
Bell has won both Xfinity starts he’s made this year.
Chase Elliott finished fourth. Sammy Smith completed the top five.
Stage 1 winner: Christopher Bell
Stage 2 winner: Sheldon Creed
Who had a good race: Christopher Bell scored his second Xfinity win of the season and 19th of his career. ... Cole Custer (second place) has scored a top 10 in all eight Xfinity starts at Darlington. ... Jesse Love’s sixth-place result gave him top 10s in both Darlington races this year.
Who had a bad race: Parker Retlzaff had engine issues on the opening lap. He later returned but finished 36th. ... Joey Logano ran only 12 laps before heading to the garage with engine issues. He finished last in the 38-car field. ... Kyle Weatherman finished 37th after a crash — his second significant crash in the last three weeks.
Next: The series races Saturday, Sept. 7 at Atlanta (3 p.m. ET on USA Network).
